mature.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1595, 23 September 1882, Page 6

mature.

ADVENTUKE WITH A BLACK BEAK. It would seeni improbable that the young of the black bear were liable to fall a prey oo the fox and black cat, or fisher, yet such is the fact. This happens, of course, when the cubs are very young, and incapable of following their dam in her search for iood. The black cat is the most successful cub-slayer. The fox, notwithstanding his proverbial sagacity, is often surprised by the return of the bear, and killed before he can escape from the den. An Indian hunter, who knew of two litters of cubs which he intended to capture as soon as they were old enough to be taken from their dam, was anticipated in one case by a black cat, and in the other by a fox. The latter paid the penalty of his adventure with his life, and was found in the den literally torn into shreds by the furious bear. The fox had killed one of the cubs, "and the old bear, hoping to find a more secure place, had gone off with the two remaining cubs. The Indian overtook and slew her, and captured the cubs. Upon another decabion he was not so fortunate. Stimulated by the large price offered by the officers of a garrison town for a pair of live cubs, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to find a den. One day, when accompanied by his little son, a boy of ten, he discovered unmistakable traces of a bear's den, near the top of a hill strewn with granite boulders, and almost impassable from the number of fallen pines. One old pine had fallen uphill, and its upreared roots, with the soil clinging to them, formed, with a very large rock, " a triangular space into which the snow had drifted to a depth of ten or twelve feet. The Indian was about to pass on, when he detected the whining of bear-cubs. By making a detour, he reached a place on a level with the bottom of the boulder, and there saw the tracks of an old bear, leading directly into the centre of the space between the tree-root and the boulder. The old bear, in her comings and goings, had tunnelled a passage under the snow-drift. Getting down on his hands and knees, the Indian, with his knife held between his teeth, crept, bear fashion, into the tunnel. After entering several feet, he found the usual bear device — a path branching off in two directions. While pondering what to do under such circumstances, a warning cry came from his little son, who was perched on the top of, the bowlder, and the next instant the old bear rushed into the tunnel, and came into -violent contact with the Indian, the shock causing ,the tunnel to cave in. The Indian, after 'de&ling the bear one blow, lost his knife in the sriow\ and seized the bear . with his hands; but ms proved too strong for hip, and was H»« |^t tn «f^l.W.n£ tWAriff. wT™»